


Light her World

by KtheG



Category: The Wilds (TV 2020)
Genre: Christmas Lights, F/F, christmas fic cuz it's still technically christmas for me, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:53:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28333419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KtheG/pseuds/KtheG
Summary: Toni knows how much appearances matter to her girlfriend, and so when Christmas rolls around, she does her best.
Relationships: Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe
Comments: 10
Kudos: 332





	Light her World

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends, this is my first fic for this fandom, and it kind of just happened? anyway, lmk what you think cuz I wanna write for these two idiots so bad

Toni wasn't always one for over the top gestures. In anything. If it could be said in four words, why waste more than that? Some thought it was rude, some thought it was cold, and some thought it meant she didn't have a lot going on in the brain. It never really bothered her, she didn't care what people thought of her after all. But Shelby did. Shelby, her wonderful girlfriend who cared too much at times. Cared too much about what their neighbors would think, what their friends would think, what _Toni_ would think. Everything had to be perfect for Shelby. And so when Christmas rolled around and they watched their neighbors begin to put up lights on their houses, Toni rolled her eyes. "I think it's so fuckin' stupid. Their electric bill has got to just be so expensive during the holiday's." Shelby gave a light laugh, but her eyes betrayed her feelings. Toni knew that Shelby had grown up with the perfect Southern family; she had done _pageants_ for Christ's sake.

They were walking through the neighborhood, their golden retriever ahead of them sniffing at the spot on a tree where he always fought squirrels for for the territory. Something about Shelby's reaction worried Toni, but she also knew that this time of the year was stressful for her girlfriend. Family was always brought up, and neither of them really had family, but Toni was more okay accepting their friends as family than Shelby was. So Toni made a note of Shelby's reaction and vowed to do something about lights for their house.

It wasn't easy, she had _the worst taste_ on anything related to decorating. The only part of the house she was allowed to have input on was the bedroom, and that's because Shelby wouldn't let anybody that wasn't them in there to see how random the decorations were. ("The pillows don't even match the sheets, Toni. What the hell were you thinking???" Shelby had only been mad for about five minutes before Toni pulled her into those sheets.)

So Toni sucked at decorating. She didn't want to become one of those gaudy houses that had billions of blow up lawn decorations that were incredibly tacky. Home Depot wasn't much help in figuring out how to decorate their house, so Toni did what she always does when she wants to impress Shelby; she calls their friends. Fatin suggested going away for the holidays so Shelby wouldn't even have to look at the lights while being distracted by some beach spot that Fatin's family owned. Dot suggested just hanging a couple wreath's on the windows and calling it good. Leah got all poetic and talked on and on about the meaning of light and how hanging lights would show Shelby how she was the light of Toni's life (or some shit like that, Toni stopped paying attention the minute Leah started waxing metaphorically.) Rachel and Nora weren't much help, the two of them pretty practical, and Martha suggested Pinterest. Fucking **_Pinterest_**. As if. But to Pinterest she went.

Shelby had gone out for groceries, and so Toni logged onto the computer knowing that Shelby had (at one point, she wasn't sure if she still did) a Pinterest account. How could she not? Southern Bell to the very core.

Toni had no idea where to even begin looking for Christmas ideas that were tasteful. The goddamn sight had _so many_ awful ideas on how to decorate your house for the holiday's, but none of them spoke to Toni in the way that she wanted. She didn't want anything over the top. She just wanted simple. To match their simple little tree that the two of them had picked out a few days earlier. The lights on the tree were colorful, none of that "stupid off-white shit that white people always use, Shelby. I want a disco ball!"

So she wanted to find something that would go with the tree and not clash. Turns out, it's harder than she thought. Eventually, she finds it: simple ropes of lights that you could set the settings for. The lights could be colorful or they could be white, or they could flash in a pattern of colors. It seemed like it would fit their house the best, and so Toni wrote down the name of the lights and went to Target (fucking _T_ _arget._ The things she does to make Shelby happy killed her a little sometimes.) The parking lot was packed, because of course it was. There were still weeks to Christmas, and yet, the masses all had to get everything done that very day it seemed. She found a spot eventually, made her way into the store, and bought a single rope of lights, thinking that would be enough if they just strung them along the bottom edge of their roof.

The lights were more expensive than she would've liked, but they were LED, so in theory, they shouldn't make a dent on their electric bill for the month, but Toni was skeptical. On the drive home, Toni leaned over to turn on the radio and had to roll her eyes as the Christmas channel came on. Radio stations had about two months to play Christmas music, and it seems like this one was keen on those pop-y covers of classic songs. Michael Bublé rang in her ears long after she arrived home, and she couldn't help but hum a few of the bars.

She set about trying to open the lights ("why does every god damn package require a fucking jackhammer to open? It's plastic for God's sake!") By the time the package opened, she was half way to quitting and trying again next year, but then she thought about Shelby, and how she had seemed disappointed at the thought of not having lights on their house. So Toni pushed on, got the package of lights open, and went outside to see if she would have enough. She laid the rope from one end of the roof to the other along the lawn and then looked up to the roof. There was no way for her to get the lights attached to the house. Because of course not. It would never be this easy. She had watched her neighbors put up all their lights and how easy it seemed, and now she feels like a fool. She should've taken advice from the guy at Home Depot after all.

But Toni is nothing if not resourceful, so she starts tearing through the house for some tape to hold up the lights, and just as she wraps her hand around a roll of duct tape, she can hear the front door opening.

"Toni," Shelby's voice is hesitant, "why is there a string of lights on the front lawn?" She doesn't sound disappointed, but Toni was _really_ hoping to have the lights up before Shelby got home, as a surprise. Instead, she's going to have to explain to her girlfriend, who cares _very much_ about what other people think, how she was going to duct tape a 30 foot rope of lights to their house. She turns around sheepishly, the tape still in her grip, and can only smile.

"...I was gonna hang them up?" Shelby barks out a laugh, and makes her way to the kitchen to stand next to Toni.

"But you hate Christmas lights. All you do is complain about how bright they are, doofus."

All Toni can do is shrug, "but you like them, so I thought we could try it out?" Toni absolutely _hates_ , loathes to the high heavens, that Shelby has made her want to put up Christmas lights, and yet, she _doesn't._ She thinks it would be fun to take part in the holiday season. It goes against everything she ever believed as a teenager (basically. Christmas is a colonizer's holiday) and here she is, 110% ready to commit. She even bought the fucking lights.

Shelby leans in, places a peck on her cheek and pulls the tape from her hands.

"You can't use duct tape silly, it'll tear the paint off the house when we take them down in January."

"You mean to tell me we are going through all this trouble to have lights up for a month?? _A MONTH Shelby??_ " Toni's face is heating, not out of anger, but because she loves this woman so goddamn much that she's going through all this trouble to make their house festive for only a month, when Shelby deserves the whole year of bright lights.

"Look. We can drop some nails and hang the lights from those! It'll be so much easier, and that way we can hang other things from them throughout the year. I'll grab the hammer if you want some help?" And Shelby knows her so well, knows that Toni doesn't do things just for the fun of it, and yeah, hanging stuff up during Halloween would be kinda fun. Maybe even the other stupid white people holiday's that they celebrate now (with _barbecue's no less_ ) and so she accepts Shelby's help.

They make quick work, and eventually, the 30 foot rope of lights that Toni had bought is hanging from their roof. And now comes the fun part: deciding the colors. She's got the remote in one hand, manual in the other, reading on how to set the lights, when Shelby says they should make them blue. It takes everything in Toni not to snap her head over to her girlfriend to make sure Shelby is actually okay.

"We are not making the lights _blue_ Shelby. That is a disgrace to Christmas. The lights will be white." (Toni didn't know how serious a fight about lights would be until she's threatened with no sex for the month of December.)

Eventually, they settle for the alternating pattern of the traditional Christmas colors (and if blue happens to show up, it's not because Toni made it a color, it's because blue _had_ to be an option. They needed four light colors, and hell if she was gonna let it be purple.) When they walk through their neighborhood now, and Toni comments on the lights, it's to compare the observations to their own house. She can clearly see how much more relaxed Shelby is, and Toni knows that it was a good decision to hang up the lights. Now, Shelby doesn't have to worry about what other people are going to think of their house. Toni wishes it didn't require hanging lights, but if it makes Shelby happy? She'll do it for every goddamn year that fucking Christmas occurs.


End file.
